Invictus Gaming vs Phoenix Gaming: Favourite to easily defeat the underdog

The first DPC league of the 2021/22 season in China will continue on Sunday, January 09. Invictus Gaming and Phoenix Gaming will meet in the first match for the elite division.

DPC CN 2021/22 Tour 1: Division I is an online Dota 2 tournament that will take place from January 03 to 21, 2022. Eight of the strongest teams from the China region will compete for $205,000. On top of the cash prizes, the teams will also fight for four entries to the majors and the crucial DPC points needed to qualify for T11.

It's hard to imagine how Invictus Gaming in a DPC league could lose to the newcomers from the current Phoenix Gaming, a team that should stand first in the relegation. The opponent is not of the level of China's elite, which will show them another grandee in the form of IG, who need points after losing to RNG at the start.

Invictus Gaming was cheerfully starting the first round of the DPC league. In the match against RNG, a bunch of storm, io, and a crazy tini again worked. The second map is traditionally flooded for IG, where they were stuffed with unexplainable things and lost safely. On the third map, everything was going to be a sure victory, but then happened Somnus丶M on the line, and now Invictus Gaming is 0-1 in the standings, not fair, but further, the team should be angrier.

For the Invictus Gaming team, the past year can safely be called a successful one. Championship in the first DPC league 2021 in China, victory in the Singapore major, and a short-lived trip to the Kyiv major. Most importantly, a Top 4 TI10, which was an extremely important result for the organisation, confirming that there is a reason this team has continued to play in the same line-up for several years now, remaining the only one who has not made any changes to the massive September 2020 decider.

Before starting the new DPC cycle in 2022, IG did make one replacement, signing a new four in the form of Chinese Fade from EHOME, who replaced Kaka, who ran out of contract and went on a free-float, still without a team.

Slightly renewed Invictus Gaming managed to play in the traditional December tournament Huya Winter Invitational and once again not too worried about the result. But IG jumped high enough, although, in the grand final of the tournament, they were not allowed just opponents from RNG, who upset them in the first round of DPC, while doing it on the third map is 3xp from defeat and Somnus丶M on the line will long dream of IG.

Generally speaking, it's hard to evaluate Invictus Gaming. They can fool around in their first DPC season without worrying about the result, or they can start the year like they did in 2021 - trashing the whole Chinese and even the world Dota scene at once. Their squad is good if they start to take it seriously, and I have faith in them for the start of 2022, and then we'll see. These guys are bound to break into the top 3 in China.

The Phoenix Gaming team is one of those squads that is a springboard for bringing up new Chinese players. Last season, the former Phoenix Gaming squad proved themselves that they almost ended up in EHOME. Before they left, they left to play their former organisation in China's elite, which is already an unreal cool achievement.

Phoenix Gaming begins the new season, albeit in the elite, with a completely revamped roster:

M77 is a little-known carry who hasn't been out of TierR-4 of Chinese Dota since 2014, but here is a chance for him to prove himself at once in the Chinese elite.

zone is a complete novice destined to play in the second position. It's hard to say yet what the not-so-young Chinese Doter is about.

Shining is a three who previously played together with the M77 carry on the same team as We Are Young, where they even participated in the same Tier-1 tournament called World Cyber Arena 2016, but that was so long ago that it seems as if it's not true.

Yp is a support that hasn't been seen on the professional Dota horizon for over three years. What the previously little-known player is like is also hard to say.

Lww is a five, which, unlike its new teammates, flashed on the professional stage, playing for teams Aster.Aries and Team Sirius, but it was all in 2020. All this year, he never played anywhere.

On paper, the squad is extremely weak for China's elite. It's not certain that the guys would have been able to snag a good spot in the second division in that region. But Phoenix Gaming had to recruit at least some players not to lose their historic slot, although for me, they are the first contenders for relegation. The first game against EHOME confirmed it, 0:2 went to the guys, and that's still far from the Chinese top.

On the first map, I expect the victory of Invictus Gaming with a handicap -15.5 kills; odds for this are 1.84.

Invictus Gaming will shut out their opponent on the second map in less than 33.30 minutes; odds on that are 1.90.